Hereafter
by IceCoffeeEffigy
Summary: The tale of a bittersweet reunion. Gene wakes from his spiritual sleep to find he is no longer alone. One by one, he finds himself accompanied by the lost souls of the SPR crew as they make their way to the afterlife. Noll is the last to join them, but will Gene be able to move on with him? One-shot.


Hereafter

Mai was the first.

Her presence rocked him into wakefulness, forming ripples through this unreality. She came from the mist in a torrent of confusion and pain. He reached out on instinct. How many times had they done this before? Thousands? Hundreds? Only a handful? His hazed mind couldn't remember the way his soul could.

Usually when he visited her, he could catch glimpses of existence. She would tease him from his slumber with glimpses of the world she lived in. A world of danger, of compassion. From time to time, he saw what they couldn't; rogue spirits, unseen circumstances. Now and then, he could manage a glimpse of him; a flash of dark hair to match his often grim expression, the evidence of time etched in the lines of his face. This time he only saw himself. His own soft, boyish face, a glowing outline in the fog.

He was no longer visiting her — she was with him, alongside him. Gone from that world of danger into this unreality.

At his touch, her confusion eased. She clung to him, eyes closed, as if the simple act of reaching held all the answers. Still, the pain lingered. It pulled at her thoughts, an inescapable undertone of fear and regret. He held her tight, pulling her inane form close to his own until there was nothing but her.

He glanced down at her short auburn hair, taking in the gentle glow that spread from his arms onto her. He frowned. It could only have been minutes – how could she already be so firmly gripped in the ether? What kind of end had she met? As her fear ebbed, replaced by understanding, he knew it no longer mattered. It couldn't be helped.

Mai pulled away from him, just enough that he could see her wide brown eyes, a truer brown than he had ever noticed before. She searched his face for a long moment, taking him in.

Time didn't often care in the nothingness but there was something about the gentle curve of her smile that kept time for him. By the time her eyes had crinkled at the edges, they were no longer alone. Another presence had invaded their realm.

This time it was someone he didn't recognize. He didn't reach out for them as he had for Mai, yet somehow, they found their way to them. A tall, lanky man with a ponytail of long brown hair came from the mist. His monk's robes bore the unmistakable signs of a struggle. His wrists and face were accented by pale, thin cuts.

Gene reeled back. How could he have missed the large pale gash across Mai's cheek? She pulled away from his grasp, reaching out toward the monk as he had to her. He let her go, watching as the two embraced.

As they did he saw the large slash through the back of her clothing.

Together, though they were both smiling, there was an unexpressed sense of sadness. Without being told, they both knew what their reunion meant.

Soon after came a young girl, quite like Mai in her youth but she carried an air of elegance even in this place. Her short black hair swayed around her shoulders as she moved into the embrace.

Then quickly after her, another, older woman with sweeping red hair. Made less of elegance and more bitter grace, she joined the edge of the embrace. Both held the same slashes on their skin as Mai and the monk had.

When the next person came, Gene was forced to shade his eyes from the brilliance of him. It wasn't that he was bright; his priestly robes shimmered about him in a way that took in the glow of the surroundings and cast them back onto the others. His blond hair whirled around his face in the memory of a breeze as he joined the group. Gene wasn't sure of the feeling that came with the sight of the boy. Purity? Sincerity? It was wordless, indescribable. Holy.

With each addition, the sense of sadness grew until their smiles faded. No one was smiling any longer, their defeat overshadowing their joy. Tears shimmered over Mai's cheeks. Almost as one entity, the group turned toward the edge of the mist where once again there had been a disturbance.

After the brilliance of the young priest, it proved difficult to comprehend the broad-shouldered figure. Though, like with Mai, Gene felt a spark of familiarity. A distinct feeling he'd known this person before, when he had been living. When they both had been. Lin's white collared shirt stood out in the great mist where it hung from his chest in tatters. Several large pale marks were revealed where the lining peeled away from his chest.

Gene reached out to him. Then, with a shock of pain, he recoiled back into himself. As he did, the orbs surrounding the omnyoji resumed their swirling pattern. They had rebuffed him.

 _Shiki_ , his mind supplied, _remember?_ In truth, he didn't, not really. He understood but he could not know. Those who spent too much time in the ether were like that. Themselves, the way they were before, but not exactly. Something was missing; some part of them gone from them.

Lin glided to the group, but did not join them. Instead, he seemed to stand guardian over the group. A sentinel of lost souls.

It was then that Gene should have known. It was stupid that he hadn't realized it all sooner. He shouldn't have been surprised when the last figure was formed from the mist like a shadow.

Age had been kind to Noll. Though he still stubbornly wore those black clothes that Mai had always shown him, his face had aligned itself closer to his personality. Sharp cheekbones jutted out beneath sunken blue eyes, giving off an ingrained sense of withdrawal, of danger, of loss. Gene lifted a hand to his own, unchanged face. Would he have looked like that?

The light that gripped the rest of the group seemed to lessen around Noll. It was as if he were ill-reflective, unacceptable of the realm he found himself in.

Like his predecessor, Noll did not go to the group. He lingered on the outskirts, his dark form barely visible. As Gene reached out to him, he felt it; a surge of withering pain, breathlessness. The feeling of coming undone, tearing at the seams.

Noll's shadowy existence blinked out of sight, then back in, wavering as if he were not of this world. As if a part of him were still clinging to the other side. His form flickered, disappearing and reappearing twice more as if unable to choose between one existence and another. He appeared again, closer to Gene than he had been before, and the flicking stopped. Relief flooded the space between them, the feeling echoed on his brother's angled face.

For the first time since arriving, realization seemed to wash over Noll. He took in the sight of his lost friends, eyebrows furrowing in a miserable scowl. Gene cast his gaze over the group. They had all formed a semicircle around Mai, their faces turned toward Noll in a way that seemed to ask permission. With a moment's hesitation, Noll nodded in answer to the silent question.

That was all they needed.

One by one, they disappeared. Mai, then the monk, the girl in the kimono, the redhead, the priest, Lin –

Noll turned to Gene for the first time, a half smile on his face. It was hard not to notice the few inches he had grown in their time apart, or how Noll's eyes swept over him in a way that almost echoed disbelief. Gene smiled in a placating way. He tried not to notice the thin pale lines that littered the bodies of the others were noticeably absent on his brother. What he could see of his arms and neck were free of wounds, though Noll's black attire was nicked and torn in places that didn't seem natural.

What kind of being had caused this? Why hadn't he been there to help? Why wasn't Naru going with them? Would he go? Gene looked away. Would he be allowed to follow?

As if understanding his thoughts, Noll extended his hand. The sight of the offering seemed to shake something loose inside of Gene. Something that he hadn't noticed he felt until it was gone. He didn't know how, but he knew now that this was what he had been waiting for. This was the moment he had needed. Gene met his brother's older, knowing stare. There were no words that passed between them. There was no need for them.

He knew.

Smiling, Gene took his hand and together they disappeared.


End file.
